DESCRIPTION (taken from the application): The Hospital for Special Surgery and other units of the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center constitute the base of a rheumatology research training program. The primary objective is to train post-doctoral M.D. and Ph.D. candidates in research disciplines pertinent to arthritis and other musculoskeletal diseases; the experience is designed for individuals seeking careers in academic medicine. Physicians entering the program who want to fulfill requirements for ABIM certification in Rheumatology serve the equivalent of one year on clinical rotations and two years in research training. The training program faculty consists of 19 clinical investigators; including 6 independent senior scientists who maintain their own laboratories and serve as research preceptors. Research disciplines represented in the program include: cellular and humoral immunology, cell biology, genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and clinical epidemiology. The Program is supported by an NIH Multipurpose Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases Center and a Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) in SLE. The training program curriculum consists of: 1) Introduction to research methods, 2) Advanced course in clinical epidemiology and research methods, 3) Weekly research seminars attended by all research faculty and trainees, 4) Weekly journal club, 5) Cornell-Sloan Kettering Institute Immunology graduate program seminars, 6) Numerous research seminars and lectures which are held on the Cornell/Rockefeller, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center campus.